In the blink of an eye, it's the end of the year again. Lu Xun said: "After all, the end of the old calendar is the most like the end of the year. "That's because this season always has our different kind of euphoric emotions, specific warm and peaceful scenes."
When we were young, we chanted with a happy mood full of prayers, "Twenty-three sacrifice stoves, twenty-four dust dust, twenty-five twenty-six dim sums (rice cakes), twenty-seven twenty-eight thanks to the gods, Chinese New Year's Eve reunion keepers..." Joyfully into the series of activities from the twenty-third day of the lunar calendar. It was an activity with "blessing" as the core, worshipping the ancestors, respecting the elderly and loving the children, honoring relatives and friends, celebrating the whole family in the past year, and praying for the new season, the wind and rain, and the festival. Although the end of the lunar calendar has a specific smell of China's agricultural economy and society, its different folk customs are full of meaning.
One Sacrifice stove dusting is a legend
"Twenty-three sacrifice stoves, twenty-four dust dust", this is a long-standing custom, commonly known as the small year, it is the beginning of the entire annual festival activities. The sacrificial stove and dust dust seem to be two things that are not in line with each other, but they are actually very closely related. When I was a child, adults would always tell stories about the New Year, and they would talk about different stoves, saying that dust dust had its own charms. Recalling several legends, tasting the meaning of them, is also a very emotional funny thing:
1. The legend that Grandma said
The younger daughter of the Jade Emperor looked at the "King Zhang Zao" who was good at helping others and was praised for his pleasure, and there was no way but to name the son-in-law of the King of Zhang Zao as the "Nine Heavens East Chef Si Ming Stove King", responsible for managing the stove fires of each family, then the daughter of the Jade Emperor became the grandmother of the stove god. But Grandma Vesta did not accept this sentiment, and often went back to her mother's house to steal some delicious things to share with the poor people in the world. The Jade Emperor was very angry when he found out, and ordered that they should only go to heaven once a year. The Jade Emperor also suspected that his daughter had brought a body of dust from the human world, so he gave her a broom and brought it back to the people. People heard of this order of the Jade Emperor, so they sacrificed and sent off the Vesta God when he went to heaven, and after sending the Vesta God away, dusted off the dirt and let the Jade Emperor see the purity of the human world.
2. The legend told by the cousin
Legend has it that the three corpse gods are attached to the body of the man, and no matter whether it is day or night, he always follows the whereabouts of the people and is inseparable. They often made rumors in front of the Jade Emperor, describing the human world as dark and ugly. In the impression of the Jade Emperor, the human world was simply a dirty hell. At the end of that year, the Jade Emperor overheard the secret report of the Three Corpses God: "The human world is cursing the Heavenly Emperor, gathering all sentient beings, and wanting to plot against the Heavenly Court." ”
The Jade Emperor was furious and ordered the Three Corpses God to quickly detect the rebellion in the human world, and all the people who resented the gods and blasphemed the gods, sorted out their crimes and classified them under the eaves, and then let the spiders cover them as a mark. The Jade Emperor also ordered Wang Lingguan to go to the nether realm before Chinese New Year's Eve, and all those who encountered a person with a mark would not ask any questions, and would be killed all over the door, and none of them would be left. The Three Corpses God saw that the conspiracy had succeeded, so they flew down the mortal realm and broke into the human world without stopping, regardless of the three seven twenty-one, without asking good or evil, and viciously making marks under the eaves of each household, so that the evil ghost-like Wang Lingguan could be killed and killed, in order to vent the personal anger that had been in his heart for all these years.
Just when the Three Corpses God was dreaming of Huang Liang, his vicious plan and sneaky whereabouts were discovered by the Stove King, and before the twenty-three people sacrificed the stove in the 23rd of the Wax Moon, he hurriedly studied the countermeasures, and finally found a best solution with the Mother of the Stove King, so that every family must clean the walls inside and outside the house after the twenty-third day of the Wax Moon and before the Chinese New Year's Eve, and there must not be any spider webs left, otherwise, he will no longer live in this family.
Everyone followed the instructions of the Emperor of The Stove before his ascension to heaven, and from the beginning of the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, they carried out a general cleaning, dusted off the spider webs, removed the stains on the walls, wiped the doors and windows, and cleaned up the inside and outside of their own mansions, and when Wang Lingguan Chinese New Year's Eve to inspect the netherworld before he was instructed to inspect the human world, he found that the windows of every household were bright and clean, the lights were brilliant, and there was no bad trace at all, so he was very surprised, and hurried back to the Heavenly Palace to inform the Jade Emperor of the grand situation of peace and happiness in the world and praying for a happy New Year. The Jade Emperor was greatly shaken when he heard this, and he ordered the three corpse gods to be interrogated, slapped their mouths for three hundred, and were forever imprisoned in the heavenly prison, and could not do evil in the human world again. This human disaster was saved thanks to the rescue of the stove king.
In order to thank the King of the Stove for the inevitable disasters in the world, blessings and blessings, so the enthusiasm of people to sacrifice and send the King of the Stove to heaven is higher, and the dust is also placed after the God of The Stove to the heavens, and because of the twenty-fifth day of the Wax Moon, the Jade Emperor will send the gods to the netherworld to inspect, so the twenty-fourth day of the Wax Moon will dust dust.
There are many legends about the dusting of the sacrificial stove, and these legends show the multiplicity of people's wishes and trusted hopes from different angles, which not only shows the close connection between the sacrificial stove and dust dust, but also shows the close connection between the two and the people's livelihood. In the above two legends, we see that the stove king in people's hearts is a god who was born from the people, cared for the people, and was happy to eliminate disasters for the people. Because of this, people sacrifice and send stoves, just to borrow their good wishes from the gods as sustenance, as a basis, as a landing point.
Hope and joy of the sacrificial stove
To sacrifice the stove is to send the stove to heaven. We are also known locally as "Stove Path Bodhisattva". It is said that the god Vesta has become a great god revered by the people in the Xia Dynasty. In the Analects, there is the phrase "Rather than flattering the O, it is better to be flattered by the stove" (O, the southwest corner of the ancient people's residence, is the residence of a noble family. The stove is where food is cooked. The gist is to say that respecting the family is not as direct and effective as respecting the stove king), which shows that the stove king was very revered at that time.
In the old days, we in this area of Zhoushan were the most faithful bodhisattvas. At that time, the stove room at home was a counter-type earthen stove, most of which had two eyes of the stove, which could be placed with two woks (there were differences in size) and a soup pot in the middle. There is a stove head on the stove, the stove head is generally like a bookshelf, the upper layer can be put with oil and salt, etc., above the stove head, there is a shrine of "Stove Path Bodhisattva", like a small pavilion, called the Stove Juntang. Legend has it that the Jade Emperor made him the "Nine Heavenly Eastern Chef Commanders of the Stove King's Mansion" and was responsible for managing the stove fires of each family.
The people take food as the sky, and the stove king watches the food and drink of each household every day, but he is the protector of each family. When the Bodhisattva of the Twenty-Third Stove Path of the Moon of The Moon comes to ascend to heaven to report the good or evil deeds of this family to the Jade Emperor of heaven, the Jade Emperor, based on the report of the Stove Path Bodhisattva, will then hand over the fate of the family's auspicious misfortune and misfortune in the new year to the Hands of the Stove Path Bodhisattva.
Since the Bodhisattva of the Stove Path has this right, who wouldn't want to fight for it? It is the common sentiment of people to pin hopes, strive for peace, and look forward to happiness. It is really human instinct to hope that "the heavens will say good things and the netherworld will be safe".
The Song Dynasty poet Fan Chengda's "Sacrifice Stove Words" made an extremely vivid description of the folk sacrifice stove at that time: "In ancient times, the twenty-fourth month of the waxing moon (in ancient times, there were 24 sacrifice stoves in some places), and the stove king wanted to say things to the heavens. The cloud car wind horse small stay, the family has cups and plates of abundant ceremonies. Pig's head is rotten and cooked double fish fresh, bean sand gansong rice bait round. The boy offered his daughter to avoid, and the wine burned money stove Junxi. The son of a fights Against Jun Mo, and the cat and dog touch Jun Mo Mo. Send the jun drunk to the gate of heaven, spoon long spoon short do not return to the clouds, begging for profit city return points. ”
The scene of the Song Dynasty can only be seen from the poem, but our local sacrificial stove does not seem to have so many sacrifices. On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, at dusk, go to the front of the stove, set up a table, pay homage to the bodhisattva of the stove path set up in the shrine on the stove wall, and offer sacrifices to the stove fruit. The sacrificial stove fruit includes red balls, white balls, hemp balls, oil dates, white feet, black hemp sugar, etc., as well as fragrant fried beans and soybeans, etc., or 8 colors, or 12 colors. After the offering, he burned the statue of the god of vesta that had been pasted for a year with a yellow paper tie horse, and prayed that he would do more good deeds in front of the Jade Emperor and bless the peace of the family. So he folded his hands, looked at the cigarette, and prayerfully sent the bodhisattva to heaven.
Of course, the happiest thing is that the children can eat the sacrificial stove fruit. When we were young, we followed our grandparents to worship in front of the stove, imagining the way the king of the stove flew up, and dancing in front of the stove with our hands and feet. I think the earliest stove dance may have started with a scene like ours. Legend has it that someone danced in front of the stove, which later evolved into "Dancing stove dance". Now Dinghai Baiquan's famous "Dancing Stove Dance" should also be slowly developed from this to become today's folk traditional art.
When the paper horses were burned, we thought of dividing the stove fruit. At that time, there were very few good things like the sacrificial stove fruit, and it was not eaten more than a few times a year, and it was not as rich as it is now. Watching the cigarettes slowly disappear, Grandma said, "After eating the sacrificial stove fruit, the foot bones are healthy", and put the pot of sacrificial stove fruit in front of us children. We happily bite the fragrant fried beans crisply, and smack the white feet, dates, and hemp balls with sweetness and happiness. Everyone ate the sacrificial stove fruit together for a while, and Grandma gave the rest to our children, so everyone happily hid those things in their own bottles and jars and enjoyed them slowly. Oh, the taste of the new year is slowly thickening.
Three Shan to the "old old" to welcome the new scenery
On the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon, everyone dusted. This custom, there are many legends. The most interesting thing is the harmonic sound of "dust" and "Chen", the meaning of dust dust in the waxing moon is "to remove Chen Buxin", sweep all "poor luck" and "obscure gas" out of the door to welcome the new year and new atmosphere. Saying this is very much in line with the "will of the people" and in line with people's feelings. It is said that this folklore has a history of more than 2,000 years, and the Book of Rites has "Where inside and outside, the chicken first chirps ... Sprinkle the room and the court", and the "Secret House Building Sutra" also has a record of "ditches and dredging, clean houses, no filth, no plague". During the Tang and Song dynasties, the wind of dust dusting "sweeping the year" began to prevail; by the Ming and Qing dynasties, dust dusting had become a common custom nationwide. It can be seen that the ancestors had a clear understanding of the relationship between filth and dust and bad luck, plague ghosts, and diseases, and the methods were also very powerful. Between going to the old and welcoming the new, dust all the obscurity, filth, turbidity and mildew of the old year, and usher in the good luck and good fortune of the New Year. This cannot but be said to be a very meaningful health activity.
When I was a child, I was called up by my mother early on the twenty-fourth day of the waxing moon. The eldest brother, wearing a large-brimmed hat, had already tied a broom with a long pole and began to sweep the roof, clearing the dust from the tiles, sweeping away the dust on the side of the rafters, and removing the spider silk in the top corner. The eldest sister cleaned the courtyard, the sky was bright, and the corners and ditches of the house were cleaned everywhere. I quickly moved the bamboo chairs and benches to the floor and cleaned them for my grandmother. My mother scrubbed her sleeping bed, writing desk, and closet in her cleaned room. Everyone in the family worked hard. One morning, the roof tiles were neat and smooth, the corners of the house were smooth and clean, and the floor of the home was spotless. The utensils in the home were washed clean and shiny, the oil stains on the stove were gone, the houses seemed to suddenly brighten up a lot, and I suddenly felt comfortable, bright and relieved in my heart, and the suppression of the past disappeared like the dust. In the afternoon, the cleaned garbage was piled up and burned, and the spiders, mosquitoes, etc. were extinguished in the faint fire. It is then transported to a dump and dumped. In the evening, go outside to see the whole street, small alley, everywhere around the clean, refreshing, the mood is much broader, more cheerful, can't help but gently hum a cheerful little tune. "The hut is happy in the spring, and the house dust is cleaned up and the residue is removed." It reflects such a state of mind.
With the development of the economy, the lives of ordinary people are changing with each passing day, and the awareness of hygiene is constantly increasing. In addition, housing is gradually tending to be suites. However, on the twenty-fourth day of the lunar month every year, the custom of "dust dust" still has not disappeared, because people understand in their hearts that dust dust is not only to remove the old dirt inside and outside the courtyard, but also to remove the unhappiness encountered in the old age and greet the arrival of the new hour with a new look.
Today, we may wish to excavate the beautiful connotations of those traditional customs and transform them into new contents with the characteristics of the times, so that the national nature of the New Year festival is stronger and the human touch is stronger.
Source: China Marine Culture Online
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article is owned by the original author, if there is infringement, please contact to delete